Beauty & lifestyle

Month: April 2017

As we are continuously being bombarded with new highlighter releases by companies almost on a daily basis, I thought I’d review an oldie but an awesome highlighter that has been in my makeup routine for atleast 2 years now! I’m talking about the Cindy Lou Manizer from the Balm, the peachy sister of the famous Mary Lou Manizer.

The Cindy Lou Manizer

First off, the packaging is cute as with most of the Balm’s packaging. The highlighter is housed in a nice sleek compact which has a big mirror too. The compact is the size of my palm and you get 8.5g of product! That is enough to last you forever in my opinion!

Cindy Lou Manizer looks dark peach in the pan

The Cindy Lou Manizer can be used as a blush topper, highlighter and even eyeshadow. I have primarily used it as a highlight and blush topper. If you already own the Mary Lou Manizer, you might find this to be more of a subtle and natural highlight with a light hand. I have yellow undertones and a medium skintone and I still find that this works well as a subtle daytime highlighter. It gives a lit from within glow especially when out in daylight.

I tend to use the tinniest amount when using this as a highlight and when using it as a blush topper I like to layer it a bit more so that the peachy tone comes through. Again, this is not a glittery highlight, it gives a lovely sheen and hence looks natural on the skin.

Swatch of the Cindy Lou Manizer

This is a very finely milled powder and very soft! You have to be careful when dipping your brush into the pan…if you try swirl your brush or stab the pan there will be a lot of powder kickup. The best way to pick up product is to gently tap your brush on the pan and voila you have picked up enough product!

Overall, I love the quality of this highlighter. I do not notice any fading throughout the day (I have dry skin) and the price point is great too (24$)! The Balm has sales quite often and if you have the patience to wait you can grab these for a steal! If you have extremely fair skin this will work more as a blush topper and if you are on the other end of the spectrum, this would be a great highlight.

Have you tried the Cindy Lou Manizer? What is your current favorite highlighter?

Hello folks! I think the ingredient wise category on my blog is neglected a bit too much by yours truly so I’ve decided to give it some love today 🙂 In this series on the blog, we take a look at some hyped up beauty products and see if the ingredient list actually supports the claims they make in their marketing material. I have done a few of these over the past 2 years so if you would like to read up on those, click on the category titled Ingredient Wise on the left 🙂

A few months back everyone was talking about the coolest new face mask in town…a magnetic mask which sounded like a lot of fun to try out to be honest. Today I thought I would take a closer look at this hyped up mask from Dr. Brandt Skincare.

(Image Source: Sephora website )

Claims (From the Sephora website)

What it is:
An antiaging, iron-infused mask and magnet removal tool that work together to refine, purify, and brighten the look of skin.

Solutions for:
– Fine lines and wrinkles
– Pores
– Dullness and uneven skin tone
The MAGNETIGHT Age-Defier™ is a powerful mask that combats signs of aging and dramatically transforms the look of skin. Harnessing the power of attraction, the magnetic properties of the iron-based formula visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles and lift away impurities as they calm and illuminte dull, stressed skin. The face appears magnetically youthful, bright, and energized.

The very first ingredient in this face mask is iron powder which is what makes this the fun face mask to try. The magnet that comes along with the tub is used to ‘pull’ the mask from your face once you have let it sit on the skin for the stipulated amount of time. Now, besides the obvious fun factor that iron brings to this mask, does it really do anything for the skin?

The claims state that magnetic properties of this face mask can reduce fine lines and wrinkles…I am not so sure about that. What gives this mask its magnetic properties is the iron but studies have shown that after a woman reaches menopause iron starts to accumulate in her skin. This accumulation leads to skin ageing and photo ageing. Women who are in their pre menopause years lose Iron from their bodies through menstruation and faster skin cell turnover since they are younger. Once you hit menopause ( when you start taking anti ageing skincare more seriously ) the accumulation of Iron in the body increases and reduces the antioxidative capacity of the skin. Oxidative damage in turn causes wrinkles. So in a way the number one ingredient in this anti ageing face mask is not something you should be putting on your face to combat ageing!! I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this mask does the reverse of what it claims, after all that iron sits on your skin for maybe 10 minutes. All the Iron does in this face mask in my opinion is the theatrics!! 😀

So if you have used this mask and found that it does reduce your fine lines and wrinkles, you can thank the next 2 ingredients listed in this mask. Both dimethicone and polysilicone -11 give a smooth appearance to the skin by filling in fine lines and pores. The rest of the ingredients consist of more silicones and also skin conditioning agents which make this a good moisturizing mask. So where is the anti ageing stuff in this mask? I’m not sure!

Tourmaline is a semi precious stone used in some cosmetic preparations. What does it do exactly? I am not sure! I was not able to find any independent studies confirming what cosmetic companies say about this ingredient. It is generally considered to impart a glow to the skin and also help stimulate the production of collagen but there is no evidence for any of those claims.

So overall this might work as a nice moisturizing mask which you can then take off with a magnet as a fun bonus! Once the novelty of this wears off I doubt I’ll be happy about the 75$ I would have spent on this face mask.

I am a big fan of Kiko products and so far have never been disappointed with the stuff I’ve tried from the brand. On my recent trip to Spain, I went a little crazy with the Kiko purchases 😉 One of the items I picked up was the Blush cocoa shock in the shade Adorable pink and peach. The duo blush comes housed in a lovely chocolate block packaging!

Kiko Blush Cocoa Shock in 03

Once you open up the compact, a faint sweet vanilla scent hits you! I was expecting a chocolate scent given the outer packaging but hey vanilla is fine too. I am usually not a fan of scented makeup products but the vanilla scent is really mild and does not linger on once its on your face.

Kiko Blush Cocoa Shock in Adorable Pink and Peach

You would be surprised to hear that these blushes are baked since they look like the traditional powder blushes. The powder is very fine and super silky to the touch. It has all the feels of a high end luxury blush in my opinion. These powders also apply very beautifully on the skin and are perfect for a fresh face light makeup day. The blush can be worn lightly or build up to the intensity of your choice which makes them quite versatile. They last well on my cheeks and I do not notice any fading at the end of the work day.

swatches of Adorable Pink and Peach

As you can see from the swatches they don’t look completely matte and have a slight sheen to them. Also the pink blush looks more lilac on my yellow undertoned medium skin! It might lean more pink on someone with a pink undertone perhaps!

I have used these shades on their own and also layered on top of each other. I find them to be perfect for the coming Spring/Summer season 🙂

Overall, I think these are fantastic blushes. I think I paid around 10 Euros for this which I found to be quite reasonable for 2 blushes. These powders are soft and so they can kick up some powder if you are rough with the blush brush. Other than that, I can’t find much fault with these!